Page 46 of Claimed By the Depths

“Ah, Caspian Vayne.” Settling on their perch atop the booth across from us, Ignis chuckled. “He’s quite the character.”

I passed him an incredulous look. “You’ve met him?”

Ignis dipped his chin. “A couple of times, actually. Though I’m certain he will not recall me. He seems to have a thing for visiting taverns when he is sailing the seas.”

Inhaling deeply, it was my turn to nod. “He does. Or well, he did when he and I used to fly a flag together.”

Leilani tucked herself against me, fingers snaking across my back with strokes only she could offer—comfort. “Sorva imprisons Vayne, correct?”

“Yes,” Ignis answered without pause. “He has been for gods know how long. The man whom you knew, or know, may not even be who resides beneath the mask she has so meticulously molded to his face and flesh. Then again, I am uncertain how anyone could avoid harboring some form of maliciousness after being led by an evil hand for that long.”

My jaw feathered with his admittance, chest aching alongside it. The time I had shared with Caspian had never felt like a farce; every gentle brush of his fingers and the deep groan of my name on his lips had seemed genuine. Knowing how long Sorva had reigned over Wraelira, I couldn’t help but question where the line between truth and lie began and ended. But there remained a key difference between the man I knew and the man who greeted me that winter night with the determination to carve a hole in my chest.

His eyes.

The Caspian who held my heart had looked at me with a love so unmatched that his once-crystalline eyes glinted in a way that rivaled the surface of Ellira’s waters. Their blue hue was unlike anything I had seen since, so pure and full of hope that it emanated from him and seeped into whatever he touched. But now a dark crimson embedded itself in their purity, tainting it with the bloodlust he craved. And buried within them was nothing but deep-seated loathing and a hatred so potent for our world that I questioned if he had agreed to work with the dark goddess to see it fall.

If there was one thing I knew with utmost certainty, it was that the captain I sailed with all those years ago was no longer that man. Not when darkness polluted his soul and insanity nipped at the edges of his conscience.

Flattening my palms against the cool wood to bring myself back from where I drifted, I cleared my throat. With my mind settled, I opened my mouth to utter my command, but the throaty chime of a bell cut me off.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

Five consecutive strikes. Not a rhythm indicative of the hour, but…

“Royal fleets,” Ignis answered for me, his eyes widening. “They’re already here.”

I slipped from the booth, fingers already interwoven with Leilani’s as I yanked her up with me.

Parran followed suit, their attention shifting between her and me, but it lingered somewhere a breath longer—Ignis. Pain laced their expression, and their brows dropped with a guttural ache that spoke of a lack of desire to say goodbye. Hesitantly, they stopped a foot away from me, their throat bobbing as a gleam of opposition flashed in their cornflower pools.

As soon as I saw it, I already knew what it was. They had resided among humans for years, and while my crew had welcomed them with open arms and without an ounce of judgment, I imagined that seeing someone like them would awaken wounds they thought had closed. It was something even I couldn’t refute, because if I caught sight of Caspian’s baby blues again, there wouldn’t be anything in the world that would make me wish to leave him.

“Ignis,” I prompted, earning the Fae’s attention. With a smile, I extended a portion of myself I rarely gave to strangers, but for Parran, it was a sacrifice I was more than willing to make. “How would you feel about joining our crew?”

CHAPTER 25

Bred Weapon

ROHEN

His crimson glower settled in the back of my mind, threatening to deter me from following the others back to the ship. A deep ache had settled in my chest as the vision I’d had in the archive clouded my thoughts. It unfurled curiosities I wished to entertain, curiosities I should have been berating myself over, for what my subconscious had offered was nothing more than an impossible reality.

“You still straddle the cavernous depths of denial,” Ellira chimed as I ducked beneath a low-hanging branch. “Your soul craves his essence, yet your mind continues to battle what you know to be true. Why?”

My jaw tightened at her intrusion. “When will you elect to mind your business?”

“Considering your supposed business is interwoven with mine to a prophetic degree.” A brief pause before her smile became audible. “Never.”

The groan I let out was enough to draw attention. Kael peered over his shoulder, brow cocked in question. “What?”